The Crisis of Conservatism offers a powerful new interpretation of Conservative party history in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Based on extensive research into the activities and writings of politicians, intellectuals, journalists and economists, this study brings together in a bold synthesis the economic, social, intellectual and political history of Conservatism.

It shows that the Conservative party faced a number of serious problems which emerged in the late nineteenth century and reached a peak in the Edwardian period. How was the party of the land to effect the transition to being the party of property in general? How was the party of property to survive in an electoral system increasingly dominated by the propertyless? How was the party of property to cope with the emergent challenge of Socialism? How was the party of Empire to respond to Britain's apparent decline as an imperial and economic power?

The author demonstrates that these problems created intense debate within the Conservative party over the role of the State in economy and society, over the optimum path of British economic development, over the future of empire, over the Conservative constituency and over the nature of Conservatism itself.